When the estate breaks the family

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:As a Probate lawyer, you need an attorney specializing in estate litigation to move this along. I'm surprised the Estate's lawyer is still involved and has withdrawn - too much of a headache.

Second, I'm surprised any probate judge has been letting this go on for 7 years. Most jurisdictions want estates administered in 3 years in DC, 2ish in Maryland and 16 months in Virginia. If an estate has been dragging on for 7 years with some weird quirk (and a sibling refusing to move out of the house isn't one), a good judge would be calling everyone before them to figure out how to get this resolved or at least give the aggrieved parties some ability to push this process through.

Lastly and unfortunately, the Estate's cost and expenses are borne by all the beneficiaries (including the obstinate one) so there is very little ability to get them to move off their position because they only feel a reduced impact on their inheritance.


Sort of, I mean unless house sibling's lawyer spouse is representing them in the oriceeding they are also paying attorney fees for their representation + a reduced share of the estate proceeds. Ramp up the litigation, ramp up siblings expenses.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:As a Probate lawyer, you need an attorney specializing in estate litigation to move this along. I'm surprised the Estate's lawyer is still involved and has withdrawn - too much of a headache.

Second, I'm surprised any probate judge has been letting this go on for 7 years. Most jurisdictions want estates administered in 3 years in DC, 2ish in Maryland and 16 months in Virginia. If an estate has been dragging on for 7 years with some weird quirk (and a sibling refusing to move out of the house isn't one), a good judge would be calling everyone before them to figure out how to get this resolved or at least give the aggrieved parties some ability to push this process through.

Lastly and unfortunately, the Estate's cost and expenses are borne by all the beneficiaries (including the obstinate one) so there is very little ability to get them to move off their position because they only feel a reduced impact on their inheritance.


Sort of, I mean unless house sibling's lawyer spouse is representing them in the oriceeding they are also paying attorney fees for their representation + a reduced share of the estate proceeds. Ramp up the litigation, ramp up siblings expenses.


As the family member of a BigLaw lawyer, I doubt this is costing House Sibling anything. Sounds like BigLaw husband does this for sport.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:As a Probate lawyer, you need an attorney specializing in estate litigation to move this along. I'm surprised the Estate's lawyer is still involved and has withdrawn - too much of a headache.

Second, I'm surprised any probate judge has been letting this go on for 7 years. Most jurisdictions want estates administered in 3 years in DC, 2ish in Maryland and 16 months in Virginia. If an estate has been dragging on for 7 years with some weird quirk (and a sibling refusing to move out of the house isn't one), a good judge would be calling everyone before them to figure out how to get this resolved or at least give the aggrieved parties some ability to push this process through.

Lastly and unfortunately, the Estate's cost and expenses are borne by all the beneficiaries (including the obstinate one) so there is very little ability to get them to move off their position because they only feel a reduced impact on their inheritance.


Sort of, I mean unless house sibling's lawyer spouse is representing them in the oriceeding they are also paying attorney fees for their representation + a reduced share of the estate proceeds. Ramp up the litigation, ramp up siblings expenses.


As the family member of a BigLaw lawyer, I doubt this is costing House Sibling anything. Sounds like BigLaw husband does this for sport.


Maybe, but they're also losing billable time so if they're a partner it's costing them in that regard.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:As a Probate lawyer, you need an attorney specializing in estate litigation to move this along. I'm surprised the Estate's lawyer is still involved and has withdrawn - too much of a headache.

Second, I'm surprised any probate judge has been letting this go on for 7 years. Most jurisdictions want estates administered in 3 years in DC, 2ish in Maryland and 16 months in Virginia. If an estate has been dragging on for 7 years with some weird quirk (and a sibling refusing to move out of the house isn't one), a good judge would be calling everyone before them to figure out how to get this resolved or at least give the aggrieved parties some ability to push this process through.

Lastly and unfortunately, the Estate's cost and expenses are borne by all the beneficiaries (including the obstinate one) so there is very little ability to get them to move off their position because they only feel a reduced impact on their inheritance.


Sort of, I mean unless house sibling's lawyer spouse is representing them in the oriceeding they are also paying attorney fees for their representation + a reduced share of the estate proceeds. Ramp up the litigation, ramp up siblings expenses.


As the family member of a BigLaw lawyer, I doubt this is costing House Sibling anything. Sounds like BigLaw husband does this for sport.

Exactly. It’s called professional courtesy, House Sibling is not paying a dime.
Anonymous
Also, the estate paying 50% of the mortgage here is kinda BS too. Ok sure they should pay but he should also be paying use and occupancy for the portion owned by the estate. Normal people would just call it even but if you wanna be a jerk about it you can insist in fair market value which by now is probably higher than 50% of the mortgage.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Also, the estate paying 50% of the mortgage here is kinda BS too. Ok sure they should pay but he should also be paying use and occupancy for the portion owned by the estate. Normal people would just call it even but if you wanna be a jerk about it you can insist in fair market value which by now is probably higher than 50% of the mortgage.


The greed is insane.
Anonymous
Does anyone else think House Sibling found this thread and is posting here? I can’t believe that anyone else would think that the other siblings are the greedy ones in this situation.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else think House Sibling found this thread and is posting here? I can’t believe that anyone else would think that the other siblings are the greedy ones in this situation.


If you are referring to my prior post, I was talking about HouseSib and spouse as greedy.
Anonymous
OP here with an update.

PARTITION FILED

There was a lot of back and forth. The lawyers for the House sibling seemed to think we were all country bumpkins (parent died in rural location where none of us live any longer so must have assumed we were all there?) and would never do it. Partition was filed July 7 and our lawyer has had 3 calls from House siblings lawyers trying to work a deal.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:OP here with an update.

PARTITION FILED

There was a lot of back and forth. The lawyers for the House sibling seemed to think we were all country bumpkins (parent died in rural location where none of us live any longer so must have assumed we were all there?) and would never do it. Partition was filed July 7 and our lawyer has had 3 calls from House siblings lawyers trying to work a deal.


God bless you for coming back with an update! Did you get a new lawyer?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:OP here with an update.

PARTITION FILED

There was a lot of back and forth. The lawyers for the House sibling seemed to think we were all country bumpkins (parent died in rural location where none of us live any longer so must have assumed we were all there?) and would never do it. Partition was filed July 7 and our lawyer has had 3 calls from House siblings lawyers trying to work a deal.


You did the right thing under the circumstances.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP here with an update.

PARTITION FILED

There was a lot of back and forth. The lawyers for the House sibling seemed to think we were all country bumpkins (parent died in rural location where none of us live any longer so must have assumed we were all there?) and would never do it. Partition was filed July 7 and our lawyer has had 3 calls from House siblings lawyers trying to work a deal.


God bless you for coming back with an update! Did you get a new lawyer?


Estate lawyer is still the same nitwit who drew up the will and trust. The trustee sibling is sticking by that one. The rest of us got a new lawyer. There aren't many in the local county so it was hard to find one to move things along. We did ask about new judge but lawyer is concerned that will delay. We are on a monthly court checkin now with the judge.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP here with an update.

PARTITION FILED

There was a lot of back and forth. The lawyers for the House sibling seemed to think we were all country bumpkins (parent died in rural location where none of us live any longer so must have assumed we were all there?) and would never do it. Partition was filed July 7 and our lawyer has had 3 calls from House siblings lawyers trying to work a deal.


God bless you for coming back with an update! Did you get a new lawyer?


Estate lawyer is still the same nitwit who drew up the will and trust. The trustee sibling is sticking by that one. The rest of us got a new lawyer. There aren't many in the local county so it was hard to find one to move things along. We did ask about new judge but lawyer is concerned that will delay. We are on a monthly court checkin now with the judge.

Thank you so much for coming back to update. I hope it’s over soon!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I have to tell you, I wouldn’t care about this at all. If it’s a house that is the home of my sibling, but my parents helped pay for it, I would want to transfer it to them in the easiest way that satisfies the legal requirements of probate or whatever.

I don’t care at all about me and my siblings getting an equal inheritance. I think if people are at the point where they want someone to move to a new house over that, the family was already “broken.”


I have to assume you are wealthy. Otherwise you would care that a sibling is getting a huge portion of the estate gifted to them rather than paid back to the estate as is legally required.

Should they have to sell the house? No, but at the very least the gift to the couple of the down payment, plus the amount that the investment made in equity should be subtracted from their inheritance. The house should not be sold, but they will need to pay taxes on the gift they have been given.

Again, go to a lawyer and do what they say or you will all have to go to court to fight this out.

If the sibling who got the huge gift really thinks that they are entitled to this money without subracting it from their share of the estate, they are rude not to mention delusional and they deserve to be cut off by the rest of the family.
Anonymous
I find it hard to believe this is not a troll thread.

Really - parents gave 50% down payment on a house but included that 50% plus house appreciation as part of the estate?

Come on. Parents had to know they were stirring a hornet's nest. No loving parent will pull that stunt.
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